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SCSIraidGURU1
Explorer
May 25, 2025
Solved

Comcast increased my WAN speed to 1100 Mbps and use a 2.5 Gbps modem port

  • May 25, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 1412 views

I have a 61F firewall with 1 Gbps ports.   Comcast raised the download speeds to 1100 Mbps and use a 2.5 Gbps port.  How can I get a 2.5 Gbps switch and put two cat 6 cables from it to two 61F ports and link them for WAN?

Best answer by ede_pfau

OK, you go and buy a switch with at least 3 ports. It needs to be titled "managed" or at least "L2 plus" or such, specifically it must support port aggregation with LACP. Having VLAN capabilities will not harm.

For example, FortiSwitch 100 series.

 

One port will connect to the modem.

Then you create a virtual switch port through an LACP aggregate, consisting of the other 2 physical ports.

 

On the Fortigate, go to Network - Interfaces - Create New - Aggregated port. Choose 2 unused ports (such as 'wan' and 'internal2') as members.

When you connect the 2 switch ports with the 2 FGT ports, you can check the LACP status with

"diag netlink aggregate name your_aggregate_link"

where you substitute the name of the LACP port you just created.

 

Even if there are some parameters (in 'config system interface') for tuning the LACP trunk you usually do not need to change them from default. It depends a bit on the switch vendor.

This should allow the full speed of the WAN connection.

 

Please note that a single session cannot exceed 1 Gbps. This is because sessions are distributed across LACP members, not packets. Only the total of a bunch of sessions will on average reach 2 Gbps (wire speed), or rather 1.1 Gbps (WAN connection speed).

3 replies

knaveenkumar
Staff
Staff
May 25, 2025
ede_pfau
SuperUser
ede_pfauAnswer
SuperUser
May 25, 2025

OK, you go and buy a switch with at least 3 ports. It needs to be titled "managed" or at least "L2 plus" or such, specifically it must support port aggregation with LACP. Having VLAN capabilities will not harm.

For example, FortiSwitch 100 series.

 

One port will connect to the modem.

Then you create a virtual switch port through an LACP aggregate, consisting of the other 2 physical ports.

 

On the Fortigate, go to Network - Interfaces - Create New - Aggregated port. Choose 2 unused ports (such as 'wan' and 'internal2') as members.

When you connect the 2 switch ports with the 2 FGT ports, you can check the LACP status with

"diag netlink aggregate name your_aggregate_link"

where you substitute the name of the LACP port you just created.

 

Even if there are some parameters (in 'config system interface') for tuning the LACP trunk you usually do not need to change them from default. It depends a bit on the switch vendor.

This should allow the full speed of the WAN connection.

 

Please note that a single session cannot exceed 1 Gbps. This is because sessions are distributed across LACP members, not packets. Only the total of a bunch of sessions will on average reach 2 Gbps (wire speed), or rather 1.1 Gbps (WAN connection speed).

SCSIraidGURU1
Explorer
May 26, 2025

8-Port 2.5Gb Web Managed Switch with 10G SFP+, Aluminum Alloy Cooling & Magnetic Mounting - LACP/QoS/VLAN/IGMP Managed Multi-Gigabit Switch for Homelab


I have been thinking about doing 10 Gbps at home.   This switch seems to handle everything.  

I have two WAN ISPs:  AT&T Gigabit Fiber 1020/1020 and Comcast 1100/35.  If they both go above Gigabit speeds can I use LACP to get maximum bandwidth for all the devices in the house?